Rosetta to Spiral onto Comet's Surface After Extended Mission

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Europe's Rosetta spacecraft, which is currently orbiting a comet
as it hurtles around the sun, has been given nine additional
months of operation time and will likely end its life by
spiraling down onto the comet's surface, officials said.

The
Rosetta probe is currently orbiting Comet
67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, which is zooming toward its closest
approach to the sun in mid-August. The European Space Agency
(ESA) said in a statement yesterday (June 23) that it would
extend the mission, which was originally funded until the end of
December 2015, through September 2016.

On Nov. 12, 2014, Rosetta deployed the Philae lander onto the
surface of the comet. Philae came to rest in a shady spot,
preventing its solar panels from recharging the lander. But just
last week,
Philae woke up, having regained some energy as more sunlight
reached the surface of the comet. [ How
Did Comet 67P Form? Video ]

By December of 2015, Rosetta will no longer receive enough
sunlight to continue operations, and its propellant will also be
depleted.

Patrick Martin, Rosetta's mission manager, said in the statement
that "the most logical way to end the mission is to set Rosetta
down on the surface [of the comet]."

"But there is still a lot to do to confirm that this
end-of-mission scenario is possible," Martin added. "We'll first
have to see what the status of the spacecraft is after perihelion
[closest solar approach] and how well it is performing close to
the comet, and later we will have to try and determine where on
the surface we can have a touchdown."

According to the statement from ESA, Rosetta would likely spiral
down to the surface of Comet 67P "over a period of about three
months," and would be able to continue science operations during
that descent. This would allow Rosetta, which is equipped with a
much larger suite of instruments than Philae, to collect data
about the comet at incredibly close distances.

Comet 67P will reach its closest approach to the sun on Aug. 13,
and Rosetta will follow the craft as it heads back out into the
dark regions of the solar system. After December 2015, as the
comet moves farther away from the sun, there will not be enough
light to charge Rosetta's solar-powered suite of scientific
instruments, the
ESA statement said.

"This is fantastic news for science," said Matt Taylor, ESA’s
Rosetta Project scientist. "We’ll be able to monitor the decline
in the comet's activity as we move away from the sun again, and
we'll have the opportunity to fly closer to the comet to continue
collecting more unique data. By comparing detailed 'before and
after' data, we’ll have a much better understanding of how comets
evolve during their lifetimes."

In its study of 67P, Rosetta has already illuminated details
about the evolution of comets as they travel toward the sun, and
the extended mission will offer even more insight into that
process. In addition, scientists have learned about the
materials that comets diffuse into space as they head toward
the sun and warm up, and the connection between comets and
materials found on Earth. The extended run for Rosetta might
also make it possible for ground-based telescopes to offer
complementary observations of the comet, mission team members
said.